Building A Soundproof Server Cabinet

in today's video I'm going to show you how I signed and built a soundproof server cabinet from wood so I can work on rack mounted several goodman in the lab without having to constantly endure the deafening sound of cooling baths [Music] hello everyone and welcome back to the channel hello it's been a long time since I last uploaded video so there's a new on hold on a second what's that hmm strange background noise you son I can hear it too what is it the sound of this antique metal lathe I recently acquired but I might make a video about soon or is it the sound of a future light aircraft preparing for its inaugural flight no but in fact is the sounds of my HP proliant dl120 printable server but but in the lab for some time now and as you can hear the racket it produces is playing about with computers and networks is another thing I like to do and so about a year and a half ago I got a proper rack-mountable server to add to the lab for running a software I'd written 24/7 and to act as a general-purpose computer since before I was just using [Applause] [Music] 16 join boots on something had to be done logically the first solution I looked at was in software many programs exists for PC fan speed control so though that that would be the simplest solution however to my dismay none of the software try it enabled me to change the fan speed curves despite the same software working fine on my PC fans weren't even registering at all so next I attempted to fix the problem in firmware usually fan control is accessible through the system bios but again much to my surprise no option was present to turn them down like any good electrical engineer I took the problem into my own hands and accepted that this could only be solved through hardware I simply decided to replace the fans with the near-silent equally-sized nfa 6x 25s from Noctua our BSF through a little soldering so that the connectors would fit now this method was actually partially successful the server booted up and the new fan starts spinning but it was at this point that I realized why the server fans were so loud in the first place you can see that the server fans are twice as thick as they're not too a replacement because they're designed to move a much greater volume there in any and time these ABC fans on the server move around 50 cubic feet of air per minute versus the measly 17 CFM of the Noctua fan so even though replacing the fans certainly reduces the noise it comes to the cost of drastically reducing the airflow which would cause the server to overheat when under load and this really is where the problem lies rack-mounted equipment is optimized a small form-factor airflow and performance are definitely not the noise level and this is usually fine the server racks go into dedicated server rooms far away from people so their noise can't be heard HP supportive said that fan speed can't be controlled by software including third-party programs like speed fun which makes sense as custom fan speed control is never really needed for servers and so the only solution really would be to put my server in a separate room well maybe not an entire server room via opted instead to build a server cabinet with soundproofing material that would completely surround it such that I could still have the server in the lab and it would receive adequate airflow but at the same time the noise would be contained inside of it a server cabinet would also allow me to add additional network hardware to have greater control and functionality over the lab network as well as being future-proof by providing plenty of space for future servers you'll see quantitive li using a decibel meter how well the cabinet performs at the end of the video so here's how it was built after spending some time planning its size shape and structure I came up with a final design and began looking at the wood I currently had to find the best pieces to use the cabinet would be 11 new or standard rack units in size since that's the tallest it could be and still have enough space to fit under the desk with ample air plug first things first was the internal structure made from these heavy-duty beams I got secondhand from the internal wall of an office building I measured out all the pieces for the frame and doors clamped them down and cut them outside with a circular saw I then used a belt sander to smooth and sand down all the edges of the beams that were cut in order to turn this from a wooden box into an actual server cabinet it needed to have the ability to mount network Hardware inside this was achieved using service strip rails of both the front and back once lined up these were attached using screws to the structure beams as can be seen here smaller pieces of equipment like the network switch and patch panel attached directly to the front rails using bolts and cave nuts the bigger pieces of equipment such as the server's themselves usually attach to both the front and back strip rails via an intermediate sliding rail this enables the service to slide out like drawers for easy maintenance however since I don't plan on making that many regular hardware changes to the server I decided to ditch the sliding rails and just made my own similar yet simpler mounting system that still enable servers to be quickly removed maintenance if needs be which you'll see later now that the strip rails were on it was time to assemble the beams to form the actual structure pilot holes were drilled in countersunk and for beams to make the front section before being screwed together another identical structure was made and both were attached to each other using for longer beams again plenty of piloted countersunk screw holes were used to ensure the whole structure was properly held together some might see this is too heavy duty for the job but remember that each individual server weighs at least 16 kilograms and that's without a full Bay of hard drives as of right now I only have one server so most of the cabinet will be empty space but the idea is to expand with more in the future and the last thing I want is for the whole thing to fall apart under the weight and damage with a server equipment because of them all of the weight will be held by those four strip rails so it's crucial that the whole structure was built around support in those areas without any warping or chances of wood splitting to help line everything up I mounted some of the smaller pieces of hardware on the rails just to check that everything's still fair whilst it was being screwed together after a few more extra-long wood screws the internal structure was mostly complete with that done the next parts that needed cutting with the panels that make up the sides top bottom and the back door perspex will be used for the front so the server gear can be seen from the outside as well be sure later on for these I got big new piece of MDF clamped it down and measured out the panels since these are all straight lines again I took to the circular saw to cut them all out after sanding down the edges a bit the side panels were lined up with the frame and clamped in place since these parts will be visible I took extra care to countersink all the holes properly let's make it look nice the whole thing was flipped over and then the bottom panel was attached with screws going into both the beam structure and the side MDF sheets just to really hold the whole thing together [Music] the plan is to have the cabinet under the lab work surface so it needed to be on wheels such that it could easily be rolled in and out despite being heavy of course casters are best for this job so for full swivel casters too with brakes well lined up and attached to the bottom of the cabinet and they work seamlessly much unlike the low-quality casters used for project Exodus a broken midway through transport between houses you'll see what I mean whenever I get around to making a video about revamping Exodus so at this point it was certainly taking shape and it was time to start on some of the cabinets functionality the principal characteristic thoughts about during the design process was airflow because if the server didn't get enough cool air it would simply speed up the fans producing more noise thus defeating the purpose of having the cabinet so to enable good airflow and to keep the noise down and air corridors implemented two air intakes located at the bottom would draw air into the cabinet through filters to keep sawdust out these are made from plastic containers with the screw-on LEDs hosting the filters allowing them to be easily removed so they can be cleaned which we'll see later to mount them I drew the outline on the bottom panel and used a jig saw to cut out the holes [Music] so far this is just a normal DIY server cabinet the next task was to make it sound proof this was achieved by using mats loaded vinyl mats loaded vinyl is a special polymer sheet that is loaded with other materials such as barium sulfate or calcium carbonate and this gives it a damping property making it a reflective sound barrier keeping most of the sound inside the cabinet and preventing vibrations that would cause additional noise by covering each panel with the sheet of mass loaded vinyl the cabinet can be made partially soundproof now by no means will this stop all the sound entirely but it will definitely help reduce the volume considerably sheets of this were cut out and secured to the inside of the cabinet using some small screws and hot glue with the side vinyl end more wood supports for the air corridor could now be added since the cold air coming in can't be mixed with the hot air exiting this section will need be covered by a thin sheet of hardboard to separate the two then mash loaded vinyls added to the bottom using a stanley knife holes made for the air inlet containers which would then cut down size the hard board was then placed over the top and glued and screwed down the air outlets would be similar to the inlets by using plastic containers he said no filters will be used instead holes are cut in the sides of the tubs to enable air to escape while still reducing noise he's also function as cable pass-throughs so screens keyboards and network cables can be connected up three holes were outlines and cut out using the jig saw before being sanded down now that the holes are cut out a meant a top panel could finally be attached to the cabinet and with that then the final layer of Mass loaded vinyl was attached to the top with the air and cable pass through holes cut out the cabinet of course wouldn't be complete without doors the back door was made simply by connecting forward beams together with a flat square of MDF on top a piece of mass loaded vinyl was also screwed on top of that to help reduce the noise from the back four bolts protrude through the beans and into holes drilled into the cabinet frame the spade bit was used to embed the bolts so that they liked to flush with the wood these hold the door in place via friction set for something more elaborate however will be used on the front door the front door was made using the same wood beam frame but two layers of transparent perspex sheets were used instead of a flat square or wood this allows the equipment inside to be viewed so that status lights on the server and network switch can be observed without opening the door which is handy for condition monitoring also the perspex just makes the whole thing a lot much cooler otherwise it would just look like a big wooden box the sheets were screwed onto the wood frame with hot glue used around the edges for good measure I wanted the seal between the door and the cabinet to be nice and strong start little noise and air could escape a simple friction fit wouldn't suffice instead spended the holes in the cabinet structure and embedded hex nuts into them I carved out the holes so that they were hex angular in shape enabling the nuts to sit there comfortably but without rotating freely the nuts were then covered using some more thin hard board so they couldn't be pulled out of the wood doing this allowed the Box on the door to act like big thumb screws so the door could be secured on or removed by simply twisting the bolts to make it much easier to tighten the bolts by hand I cut some wooden disks from some spare chipboard I had using the pillar drill and a hole saw I glued the bolts into these disks start turning them would provide more leverage to tighten the bolts the bolts were then trimmed down to size using hacksaw so that excessive turning wasn't needed to open or close the door a rubber seal was also glued around the outside to help make the connection between the door and the cabinet as smooth as possible for airflow the cool air from the corridor at the bottom needs to be pulled through the servers before exiting out the top since most of the rack space is empty blank spaces will be needed to fill the gaps to stop hot and cold air mixing so I made a few of those and unter them to the strip rails each blank is 1u in size so any number of them can be removed to make room for any size network card where that's added in the future speaking of airflow it was time to build the air filters which was done by getting the container lids from earlier and cutting a massive hole in them the hole was then covered with nylon fabric which will allow air to pass through or block most dust these were then screwed onto the containers on the bottom of the cabinet finally after testing the server inside the cabinet off-camera I realized the air intake was great but a lot of hot air built up and the air outlets due to a number of different reasons because of this I've decided to repurpose the outlet containers purely as cable pass throughs and then cut three new holes behind them where three 12-volt PSU fans were mounted like the Noctua fans whose provide ample airflow but very little noise these are not to cool down the server but to exhaust hot air pulled through it by the server fans noise from the server fans through the holes shouldn't be too much of an issue either as the back of the cabinet will be pushed right under the corner of a thick white surface further suppressing the noise at this point a cabinet mechanically was complete for part two it was time to do the electrics this included mounting the hardware power cabling and network cabling the first task was to make a bunch of cat5e cables to run inside the cabinet please needed to be bare on one end to connect to a patch panel and terminated at the other so that leg could be connected to couple us the next task was to install the 24 pour cat5e patch panel the trick to wire patch panels is to first mount them back to front so that the terminals are easily accessible punch down all the cat5e connections and then flip it back up as you can imagine this was a long and laborious task was made quicker and easier with the help of an rj45 crimp kit with punch down tool since not all the ports will be used currently I decided to only wire ten the first six will be for pass-through connections from the lab into the cabinet or vice versa the other four of the devices inside the cabinet such as the server it's the job of the patch panel to bring all the network connections from all the devices both inside and outside of the cabinet to one spot at the top of the rack from here patch cables can be used to route traffic around the cabinet to where it needs to go now admittedly my cabinet is small and only has a network switch and one server for now so a patch panel definitely isn't a requirement however it certainly helps to keep things tidy and will be more useful when I have more hardware in the future and when I want to flare out with things like separate networks subnets TMZ's etcetera I don't have rj45 sockets around the lab but I do have a whole host of devices to connect them to the network in order to patch these through cables will run from the back of the patch panel out the cable pass-through at the back of the cabinet and will terminate using rj45 couplers from there I can route any number of devices outside the cabinet on the work surface such as laptops raspberry PI's and Ethernet compatible Arduino shields into the network by connecting a patch cord between the device and a coupler since all the couplers are labeled with the same port number as on the patch panel this topology enables quick and flexible routing connecting and disconnecting of devices without having to open up the cabinet all the time most importantly however it means the cabinet can be rolled out for maintenance just by disconnecting a couple instead if all the devices were hardwired into the back of the batch panel that make moving the cabinet impossible unless tons of slack cat5 care was left dangling behind it which would be messy not to mention the fact that the patched-in devices won't be permanent instead devices will be added and removed as needed from different places in the lab meaning that the cable length would need to change all the time resulting in the need for couplers regardless after punching down each cable an rj45 tester was used to make sure all the connections worked the punch down tool almost always worked first time but there are a few instances where I had to re punch down a few of the cables before proper contact with mate once all the ports were working the support bar was attached and every cable was secured to it via a cable tie this is essential for protecting the connection because without it if the cable is pulled it would just come right out the patch panel and will be a nightmare to reconnect finally the batch panel was flipped back up the right way around and bolted on to the rails using cage nuts the second piece of network hardware to install was the Gigabit Ethernet switch this essentially connects all of the ports the same network and dust to the Internet to make the connections from the patch panel to the switch a series of short patch cables are needed which are made using offcuts from some cat 5e reels I have and a bunch of a new star J 45 connectors these were color coded with blue being internal cabinet connections gray external connections from the couplers and the Reds being the wine connection bringing in access to the internet from the houses no doubt then came the satisfying task of patching in all of connections from the patch panel to their designated port on the switch since not all of the patch panel ports were punched down I didn't bother making patch cables for all of them hence the unoccupied ports for power since only the server and switch have a mains plug a simple two gang extension needles fed through the cable pass through in future our plan to get a rack mountable six gang power block and mount it on the back strip rails but for now it's not needed before mounting the server I took the opportunity to clean the inside of it using a can of compressed air since yours full of dust this is what happens when a server's left in a wood workshop with no filters but to be honest after running for a year and a half the dust level wasn't actually as bad as I expected so it was almost time to fit the server but first some of the blank panels were bolted onto the front rails to make Mountain easier for my mounting system the front of the server bolts directly to the front rails and the back of the server rests on a block of wood mounted to the back rails which would be moved when more servers are added in future I'll switch this block to a rack mountable metal shell the corresponding network cable from the patch panel was connected up to the server and the front doors put on all that was left to do was to connect up the peripherals and boot up so as you can see the server boots up fine the screens keyboard a mouse or work and cut properly and so everything appears to be working as expected most importantly the network connection to the Internet is online and now that I'm using a gigabit switch instead of this old Linksys router the full max speed of 200 megabits per second can be reached instead of less than a hundred available using the roof as a switch as you can probably hear the server isn't silent but it's much quieter than it was before at the coupler end we have the wine connection the router and my laptop all patched through and working quickly and as you can see the switch indicator lights show all the connected devices are working now let's evaluate the builds and see if it lives up to my requirements test one was for functionality and usability maintenance at the back is quick and simple by just rolling the cabinet forward or removing the back door so the connections can be accessed the front maintenance is a similar experience the cabinet fits under the desk perfectly such that it's out the way maximizes the space available but still has enough space above and below the airflow the cabinet can be fully rolled out for one equipment needs to be added or removed and as you can see all the peripheral cables are long enough to allow this network connections can very quickly be added or removed from the couplers with the help of the numbering system test tools for airflow by putting my hand underneath the intake I can feel the air being pulled in showing that the inlets are doing their job I run the server in the cabinet for a few days and you can already see how well the disabilties of performing all that this would have probably ended up inside the server without them the 12 volt PSU exhaust fans do their job perfectly even when powered from only 9 volts audibly I can hear when the server fans are antha as they're not only louder for hire and finish with the fans off the hot air exits the cabinet slower then it's being produced leading to the server fans to become louder within minutes with the PSU fans on the server fans always stay at their lowest setter quantitive link this could be seen from the CPU for temperatures which I'm logging using real temp detail with the fans off you can clearly see the temperature reaching high 30s to 40 degrees and the server comes of much louder with the PSU fans on however the cause idle between mid-twenties to low-thirties with the server fans at their low speed both the room temperature of about 20 degrees Celsius test three the most important test was to see if the cabinet performs its primary function the noise level test for this I place the server where the cabinet would go under the desk and measured the noise level using a decibel meter in two locations the chair at the desk on the table near the center of the lab just behind the desk around 69 DBA was recorded at the chair and 70 DBA on the table now after putting the server back inside the cabinet the noise level at the chair was about 53 DBA and the table 55 DBA this is a 16 and 15 DB a difference respectively by using the cabinet remember decibels are a log 10 scale so this result shows a huge reduction in volume verifying that the project was a success for reference outside in the garden the noise level varied from 41 DBA to about 50 + DBA measures were no significant source of sound such as lawn mowers were president the noise is being measured include the wind birds and a distant aircraft passing by so there we have it the only district outlets surely entirely but the noise level has been drastically reduced without compromising at all now it might be hard to tell from the video but you definitely don't need a decibel meter to tell how much quieter is in there before hands the noise levels close to unbearable and I actually covered the front of the server with a plank of wood to help look for the sound which really isn't an advisable option with the soundproof governor it's much quieter in here concentrate on programming now don't get me wrong it's by no means silent like an easy case but compared to how long it was noise level so that's all I hope you enjoyed the video and maybe it gave you some inspiration for making your own DIY Network card bearing closure instead of buying one like I've said a few times throughout the video this is an 11 new rack but I'm currently only using for you so in the future I can expand with more servers and as UPS Hardware firewall pfSense box a rack drawer full of raspberry PI's DM Z's subnets the list of possibilities goes on the whole point of the racking cabinet is that it's modular thus having flexibility for any networking projects I plan to do later on down the line of which I may make some videos on for now though all that's left to do is to install CentOS on some one of the hard drives set up a Samba file server and get to work with some software projects stay tuned I have some other interesting videos in the pipeline that should be out soon [Music] you

Channel: Halfcorp

Views: 55,557

Keywords: Halflife390, Halflife, lab, workshop, build, work, shop, tesla, coil, geek, group, voltage, electronics, electric, tutorial, arduino, corp, half, half.corp, halfcorp, project, vlog, video, log, science, technology, laboratory, engineer, engineering, server, cabinet, centos, diy, ee, electrical engineering, computer, samba, linux, gigabit, switch, patch panel, patch, panel, server rack, server cabinet, home server, home lab, patch cable, how to, how, how to build, how to make, wood, fans, sound, proof, soundproof

Id: _aLOxQTt6vQ

Length: 24min 56sec (1496 seconds)

Published: Sun May 31 2020